As the World AIDS Day got celebrated on December 1, the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) reports on laws that convict HIV-positive people in transmitting the disease, no matter how it is done.
"In Africa, the continent hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, laws criminalising HIV are already on the books in Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone.
A growing number of countries have implemented HIV-specific laws that criminalise HIV transmission, or affect HIV-positive people in relation to basic freedoms, such as the right to have a family or the right to travel.
New laws are being debated in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, among others. Supporters argue such laws are firmly rooted in human rights and would offer some recourse to the HIV-positive, while protecting those who are HIV-negative.
Some AIDS activists say these laws could drive the pandemic further underground and undermine gains made in encouraging voluntary testing, if knowing your status could expose you to being accused of committing a crime."
To know more, read "Crime and Punishment: Criminalisation and HIV" and visit the World AIDS Days 2008 website.
The fight against AIDS is also high on the agenda of Eldis, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and DFID Health Resource Centre with this special page "HIV and AIDS".
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